Stocks are lower across the board in Europe. Germany's DAX is
down 1.5%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 is down 0.7%.

US futures are all lower, with the NASDAQ, once again, taking the
worst of it, pointing to a decline of 0.8%.

The big story of the morning is rising tension in Ukraine. A
Ukrainian soldier what shot dead by a Russian soldier. And
pro-Russian activists in various eastern regions stormed
government buildings. In Donetsk, Russian activists proclaimed
the region's independence.

This tension has had a big negative effect on Russian equities,
with the MICEX down about 3%.